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Warriors: Chapter 8
Brook S. Harbor VIII Life and Death The Liquid Fire guard fell to the floor of the plane, face first. Thick, scarlet blood streamed from his broken nose, his shadowy, purple eye throbbing in misery and pain. Tears streamed down his cheek, each one reflecting back the face of one of Team Omega's members. I watched as Seth brought his foot up in his arch. For a moment, his large sneaker blocked out the lamp light in the compartment, golden beams of light streaming out from either side of his room. It was as if his foot were a moon...and the lamp was the sun....a sneaker eclipse... Crack! I flinched at the sound of shoe against bone, as the guard cried out for mercy. Seth slid his blood, grimy, dirt caked sneaker off of the man's rib cage, stomping it hard into the floor. "WHERE IS SHE?!" he bellowed, shooting his wrist out like a bullet. His hand made contact with the guard's neck and Seth's fingers slithered around his asophogous like worms. With un-surprising strength, Seth lifted him off the ground with one hand. "This is the last time we're asking you, buddy." Seth drew his lips back in a wolf-like snarl, glaring into the eyes of the guard. I could see the man's eyes quivering in fear, the crotch area of his torn jeans darkening. His hair was matted with blood and sweat and his jaw was all but broken. "Dammit, Seth! Put him down!" I hissed, grabbing my team mate by the scruff of his collar. His fingers slipped off of the guard's throat as I pulled him away, the frightening man falling to the ground, clutching his throat. "What? I was just getting through to-!" I cut him off ferociously, placing my hands on my hips. I brushed a pink strand of hair out of my eye and gave a dagger-sharp glare to my companion. "He just pissed himself, Alder," I said, pointing at the man's pants. Seth- being Seth- couldn't help but smirk. I let out a sigh of relief, having thought my friend to have been taken over by anger. Pushing him aside playfully, I knelt down next to the Liquid Fire informant and placed a hand on his chest, surpressing the pain in his sternum enough for him to talk. "Speak," I said, a surprising confidence and seriousness having arrisen in my voice. "B-Bite me!" he spat, a few drops of saliva plastering themselves across my face. I closed my eyes tight in disgust, but surpressed the feeling of anger. Behind me, I could just feel Seth's eyes widen in anger. "No, Alder," I said to him, adressing him by his beautiful last name. "I can handel this." I gave a cute, fake smile towards the guard and lifted my sweat palm off of his blood T-shirt. He roared in pain as all the feeling returned to his chest, his pectorals heaving up and down as his fingers curled inward into his palms. "You see..." I said, wiping the spit off of my chin. "While applying pressure to your broken sternum, you wont be able to feel the pain that is coursing through your muscels and bones. However...when I lift my hand...you will experience pain much greater than before I placed my hand." I gave another sarcastic, sweet smile in his direction. He managed to a let a vile word slide off his tongue. I returned the favor with a quick panther fist to his larynx. After a few moments of him coughing and weezing, the air seemed to partially rush back into his lungs. I placed my hand softly on his chest, applying enough force for the pain to supress itself. "Now," I said, pursing my lips happily. "Are you going to tell us where our friend is? Or are you going to be a bad boy and make Brook punch your throat again?" I smiled sweetly, poking his nose a little. He growled in frustration, grinding his teeth back and forth. The sound of his molars scraping against eachother sent shivers down my back, but I retained my composure, staring deep into his eyes. "No cooperation?" I frowned. "How sad. Alder. A pot please?" Seth laughed, realizing what I was about to do. He stepped out of the compartment, only to return later with a steaming, silver pot of boiling water. The man's eyes widened as the steaming cauldron of water was placed next to his face, singing his bangs a little. "Now," I said. "I'm sure your little dossiers told you all about my powers, yeah?" I flicked out my wrist, straightening my fingers out and tightening my pull on the water. I could feel the heat and steam coursing through my veins, as if I were the moon and I was pulling the small pond of boiling water...back and forth...back and forth.... I closed my eyes and clenched my fist. A small, rotating ball of water lifted out of the pot, steam barreling off of it's liquid surface. Slowly urging the waterball to float over to the guard's body, I let myself relax, the waterball hanging only inches from his forehead. A few drops of water fell onto his chest, burning holes into his tattered, bloody sweat shirt. "So..." I grinned, eyeballing the water above his head. "We can do this the easy way...or the hard way." Then suddenly it rang. The loud, Marimba ring tone knocked me out of concentration and the steaming ball of water fell onto the man's face. He screamed, the boiling water soaking through his skin, the skin on his neck and face peeling away. Flinn curse aloud, his eyes widening in horror. Alder rushed forward, yanking me off the man and pushing me backwards softly, as not to cause any harm. "Crap!" Alder pointed a shaking finger towards Nate. "You! Nate! Run ahead of me to the plane's infirmary. Ready the supplies for a burn victim treatment. Now! I'll meet you there!" Nate nodded in agreement, racing out of the compartment, not even bothering to close the silver sliding door behind him. At this point, all of the guards facial flesh was nearly burned off. I cried in terror at the sight before me. Tears cascaded down my rosy, bruised cheeks as Alder slipped a slim, black iPhone out of the man's pocket and carried him down the hall into the infirmary. My eyes were wide in shock as the Flinn picked up the phone. Just one phone call had made me loose my concentration. I felt horrible. Imagine if that had been a large tsunami wave....and just one phone call... "Hey look at this," Flinn said, sitting next to me on the black, leather couch. He held up the phone, a large logo displaying a missed call spread across the screen. "It says from HOME." I wiped a tear from cheek and shrugged. "So?" Flinn shook his head. "If you were paying attention, that guy wasn't married. There was no ring in his pocket from as far as I saw, and there was no ring on his finger. Unless he has a kid- which he probably doesn't- and unless he has friends- which he, once again, probably doesn't- this guy's house is haunted..." I looked into Flinn's eyes. He had that look in them- that beady, seriousness- that told you he was trying to tell you something. "Or...?" "Or HOME is actually HQ. Or Base. Or Safe House. Who knows. All I know is that we need to check this out. Who would call him at such a late hour- espically from his ''house phone." I frowned, nodding in understanding, and rubbed my bare legs. "Alright. Can you trace back the signal to his house?" Flinn stared at the phone curiously and began dialing away at the keyboard. His fingers flew across the pad like humming bird wings, and finally he lifted his nail off of the screen. "There. I just unlocked his phone." My eyes widened in awe. "Wow...you're good." He smiled in gratitude, his face flushing a slight shade of cherry red. "Thanks." Returning to its normal color, his face angeled forward, staring at the contact number. "Hmm...the area code is a 305 number...hmm....Miami, eh? Looks like we're going back to the states, Brook." I nodded, "Can you find the house?" He laughed, staring at me peculiarly as if to say, ''Who do you think I am? "Right," I said, blushing a little. "Of course you can....and how long should it take us to get to Miami?" "In this plane," Flinn looked around at he cieling and interior of this fliny beauty as if he had built it him self, (which he might actually have...!?),"I'd say 30 or 40 minutes." ~ Flinn managed to find the house with no problem. It was located in an upper class part of town- the pent house of a large, fancy hotel-apartment complex. After treating the guard's burn wounds (which I still felt extremley bad about) we dumped him at a hopspital with some "professional" doctors. Before they could ask us who we were however, we blew that joint and headed down the street towards the pent house. Our money funding low, we decided not ''to hail a cab, and instead reach the complex on foot. I have to say...the Liquid Fire guards sure knew how to live in style. The building was a legit skyscrapper, way high up in the clouds. The windows reflected the cars and street back up onto them, and the front of the complex was fit with dozens of vallet parkers. We sneakily slipped inside the hotel, past the front desk, and into the elevator. The four of us sat in silence as a One Direction song played over head on the elevator speaker, the floor number changing ever second or two. I felt compelled to start dancing and singing, but I maintained my composture and stayed as serious as the guys. Thankfully, no one happened to step into the elevator with us. I'm sure it would've been completley awkward seeing a group of sweaty, bloody, bruised and beat up kids in battle armor listening to One Direction in an elevator. Not creepy at all right? I know! That's what I said! As the elevator opened up onto the pent house floor, I nearly melted. The floor was made of polished, marble and their were no walls but the two white, stone pillars that supported the cieling. Substituing for the walls were giant, glass window panes. A perfect view out at the entire city lay before us. I could see the shopping districts, the beaches, everything from up here. (No wonder the Liquid Fire dude had chosen this far up to live.) "Alright everyone," Seth said, looking from the open kitchen to the stylish living room. "Spread out. Search the whole place. If you find anything about bases or kidnappings or Selina, meet back in the kitchen...I'm kind of hungry." We all laughed at his smart remark, then went our sepearte ways into the pent house. ~ The bedroom was picture perfect- not a speck of gray dust around. The bed was neatly made and the silk, red sheets were ironed, no wrinkels in sight. This was no doubt the home of the guard, as the big blue drop of fire (the logo of Liquid Fire) was stitched onto the soft, red sheets. I was tempted slightly to just jump on the silky bed and sleep, to rest my head on the soft, buttery pillows. But we had a mission to do. We ''had ''to rescue Selina. I searched uner the bed and found nothing- not a sock, not a candy wrapper...not even a dust bunny! I checked in the closet- nothing but a row of Liquid Fire uniforms and buisness suits. The drawers? Unfortunatley I had to experience searching through a stack of men's tighty-whities. Finally the only thing left was the television. It was an old television, not even a flat screen. Compared to the rest of the apartment, this tv seemed out of place. It was bulky and when I knocked on it, it sounded hollow....hollow enough to hold something? I summoned a stream of water to fly out of the bathroom faucet down the hall and wrap around my hand. Clenching my jaw tight, it froze into a big, fist of ice. With one clean stroke I shatter the television screen. Glass rained down on the carpeted floor, a piece landing in my middle toe. I winced for a second, as I pulled out the blood shard of burned sand, and threw it in the garbage. I tore away a swath of the bed sheet, wrapping it around my bloody toe, and swearing to use anticeptics later. I dug around in the hollowed out television for a few moments before my hand glided against something sleek, and bumpy. Out of the glass and wires I pulled out a large, brown leathered brief case. Stitched across the surface of the case was the Liquid Fire logo. "Bingo," I said, winking to myself. ~ "Guys! Guys!" I said, skipping into the kitchen where they all were. The boys were sitting at the dinner table, chowing down on a bag of Doritoes and large cheeseburgers. "What's up, Brook?" Seth asked as I sat down at the table and grabbed a plate of chips. "Find anything?" I nodded in excitement, placing the briefcase on the table. "Look! Its a Liquid Fire brief case? See! It has the logo and everything..." The boys beamed, their eyes lighting up in excitment. Too bad my next step was to put them down. "But...it has a lock." Their eyes narrowed and they sighed. "Of course it does...of course it does..." Seth said, finishing the last of his delicious, mayonaise covered burger. "Hand it over," Flinn smirked as I pushed it over to our master decoder. His hands flew over the slide combination lock and suddenly the lid popped open. "You would think a Hermes or Athena kid would be better at this than me," he laughed. Seth rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny. Now...what's in there?" "I think Brook should have the courtesy of looking. She did discover it after all," Nate said, smiling in my direction and nodding towards Flinn to hand it over. As the case was slid over to me, I sat up straight and propped the lid open. "Hmmm...."I said, rummaging through the case. The first thing I pulled out was a vanilla file holder, filled with our dossiers. I handed the dossiers to Flinn and they burned to a flaming, papery crisp in his palm. Next, I pulled out a map of the Liquid Fire bases across the states. There were plenty to destory, but it seemed as though many had already been destroyed. Large, red Xs were scratched across the LF logos on the maps. However, me might've be able to use it in the future, so I ended up handing it over to Seth. Finally, the last thing in the brief was a small prism. The cube was made of a glass, though it was not a transparent sort of material. The light outside reflected off of it, causing a sparkling rainbow to flie out across the room. "Wow. With a bit of water....that's like having Iris on speed dial!" Nate wolf whisteled. Flinn, eyeballing the prism curiously, finally spoke up. "I've seen that substance before...it's Irisian Glass...you're right Nate, it's like having Iris on speed dial. But...usually only powerful enchanters have them. I know the goddess Hecate has them in her arsenal...they are usually used during contracts or buisness deals- so you can contact one person all the time without having to pay a single drachma...here...someone go get some water-" I lifted my hand. "Already on it." I flicked my wrist and a small shower of sink water rained over the rainbow. Suddenly the rainbow shimmered. The air began to contort and distort around, like static on a television screen. Suddenly infront of us was the blurry, blue sillhouete of a bulky, bearded man's face. When he spoke, he had a heavy british accent, but at the end of each sentence, it sounded like a drip of water flew off of his words... "Ah..." the image said. "Hello demigods. I expected you to find this...but so soon! So soon!" Suddenly we were all on our feet, weapons drawn. "Who are you?" Seth glared, pointing his Celestial Bronze sword at the image. The Iris image shimmered as the man laughed. "You can not harm me in this form- though you must already know that." Seth glared. "I am...you greatest enemy, demigods." "You work for Liquid Fire don't you?!" I shouted at him, gripping my trident nearvously. "For?" the voice shook, laughing. "How cute. No, my dear. I would say anythiny but work 'for'." "What do you want?" Flinn growled at the shimmering sillhouete. "My question to you, Mr. Miles....is what do ''you ''want?" I could tell Flinn was confused for a second, as the light faded in his eyes, but suddenly he seemed to snap out of his reverie. "Where is she? Where is Selina?!" The image chuckeled once more, the misty water shimmering like a sparkling dress. "An arm for a leg, Mr. Miles. We will not hand her over so easily." I was tempted to say something, and I could tell the others were too. However, Flinn cut us off at the last moment. "What do you want us to do?" "Flinn!" Seth said in protesting. "Hey, look! This man or whatever he is is obviously not going to tell us the location of Selina without us working for it. So I repeat-" he said, turning back to the image-"what. Do. We. Do?" Though I couldn't see it, I could swear the sillhouete grinned. "Very compliant, very cooperative, Mr. Miles." He took a deep breath, which sounded to me like the waves roaring on a beach. "Now. I am sure you are all very familiar with the 12 labors of Heracles?" We all nodded in agreement, though still a look of repulse on our faces. "I would have you complete these tasks, if someone had not already done it." I'm sure all our minds at that moment thought of Percy Jackson. "Instead," the voice continued,"I will have you complete 12 different tasks. I have compiled a list. When this message is over, the prism will break and you will find a roll of paper listing all of the different tasks." Flinn nodded, obviously not amused, but nodding nonetheless. The man laughed a last time, and the image began to fade. "This is a test of strength, smarts, and skill, demigods. This is a matter of ''life...''and ''death...If you do not think with your mind....you will not leave to see another day..." The image faded and once it was entirley gone, the prism exploded into shards. The glass clattered on the floor, and I noticed a small, almost miniscule, piece of parchment floating to the ground. "Flinn, there!" I said, pointing to it. Flinn snatched the paper out of the air, careful not to stab himself with a piece of glass, and unfurled it. "What does it say?" Nate, Seth, and I asked. Flinn flushed a pale, white color. His eyes grew wide, and he began shaking. Looking up from the parchment, he eyeballed each and everyone of us and said, "Task Number One. Escape from this burning building." And with that we sprinted for the stairs. ( Deshi Basara Rise Up 22:51, August 25, 2012 (UTC)) Category:The Olympian League Category:Warriors Category:Bladewood Category:Earth-865